Collective Iranian Culturebase

Persian piano music

موسیقی ایرانی برای پیانو

Persian piano music (Persian: موسیقی ایرانی برای پیانو‎) refers to piano pieces which have been composed based on Persian music. It can be also refer to pieces by Persian (Iranian) composers for the piano.

The first Piano is brought to Iran during the reign of King Nasser-al-Din Shah (1848–1896). The first attempt to change the piano tuning to Persian style was made by Morteza Mahjoubi. He is the first person that invented a special notation for piano in the history of music. This notations was registered as a National Cultural Heritage of Iran (UNESCO) in 2013 by Pooyan Azadeh.

Persian composers have composed piano pieces in different styles. Some, such as Morteza Mahjoubi, have been faithful to classical Persian music, and some, such as Javad Maroufi simply use the general atmosphere of Persian folk songs and melodies in their works.

Some ethnomusicologists have discouraged performing Persian music on the piano because of basic differences between Western and Persian music.

History

The first piano was imported to Persia (Iran) in 1806. It was a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte to the Persian emperor Fath-Ali Shah. There were very few similarities between the mechanism of the piano and the santur (a Persian musical instrument) and at the time there were no pianists in the country. Nevertheless, Sorourol Molk (a court musician) tried to play some melodies on the piano.